Christopher Columbus was known to be a Knights Templar, his ships carried the Cross of Jerusalem, the symbol the knights Templars displayed on their flag.

It is now being discovered the Templars, Vikings, Norse and probably others had reached North America before Columbus did.

There is evidence of buried treasure on Oak Island off the coast of Nova Scotia, possibly treasure the Knights buried after fleeing France because of the persecution of the church. Evidence has been found of Templar activity in the upper Midwest of the United States and Canada as well.

Columbus was a seafaring man, he would have known of these journeys that had been taken by others, especially those of the Templars.

When the Templars mingled with the native American Indians, they discovered both had similar rituals they performed during their many ceremonies.

The Templars and the Indians intermarried, one reason, so they could preserve the blood line of David, of which Jesus and Mary were part of.

You can easily assume there to be some bad blood between the Templars and the church due to recent events that had taken place in France. The Templars would have had no love for the church and the church wanted to exterminate the Templars because of the tremendous wealth they had created, and their philosophies differed immensely from those of the church.

Did he understand the consequences of the church intermingling with the natives and how the beliefs of the natives would eventually be destroyed because the philosophy of the church was entirely different than that of the Templars or the natives.?

It is possible he sailed south to avoid the mainland and preserve, not only the Templar way of life, but that of the natives as well.